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Study: Small businesses love Google, even when things go wrong

Posted by: Stephen Baker on January 09

Catch this: 92% of Internet users, according to a new Nielsen-WebVisible survey, say they’re satisfied with search results. But 39% of them frequently can’t find companies they’re looking for. In other words, they find what they’re looking for—even if it ends up coming from a different company.

For business owners still unsure about the importance of establishing a strong, search-optimized Web presence, those numbers should make a strong case. (This reminds me that I should stop postponing an SEO consultation for my blog.)

Other notes from the study:

Only 44% of small businesses have a Web site. Of those that do, 61% spend less than three hours a week marketing their Web site. This explains the difficulty search engine users encounter when looking for small businesses online.

Of small businesses that have a Web site, 51% believe both the quality and ability of their site to acquire new customers is only “fair” or “poor.”

At the same time, their answers reflect the shifts we’re familiar with. 23% of respondents say they advertise less in the Yellow Pages than they did two years ago, and 41% have lowered their spending on local newspaper ads.

For more information, here’s the release:Download file

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Reader Comments

Wally Bock

January 9, 2009 06:44 PM

To add to your point, Steve, the reason many of those companies think that their sites don't help their business is because they don't. When I analyze the competition for clients on a web copy/marketing/SEO project, I'm almost always both astounded and happy that most of the competition simply hasn't done the work to create a minimally effective site.

michael

January 9, 2009 11:18 PM

""internet buying networks""
to accomplish this goal will need to use the same format of myspace or a related social network. the people on the network will combine their wealth to buy homes and businesses.
for example lets say a home is on sale, 200,000$... we could then divide this into individual shares, and the social networking site would buy this home for us. we would then get a monthly check based on the size of our individual share hold. the renter of the house would then be responisible for buying the shares from us, until the renter becomes the owner... once that happens the renter would have in his contract... the ability to stay out of the market
for a number of years, or they could sell the house back into our market for a profit. this works for businesses to and even more so. ...some examples would be ...corporate jets...semi trailers... franchises...etc.

http://socialbuying.ning.com/profile/michaelbaker

Doug Brewer

January 10, 2009 08:07 PM

I spend about 10 hours per week with my webhosting service (www.rebtim.net), which is also my web presence consulting service. Part of the emphasis is on Google advertising but not the majority because of the specificity required to optimize search results. I plan on increasing my expenses for Google searches but most of the web marketing is done through word-of-mouth, blog presence, and advertising on sites and blogs that are somehow related to my business or where I know my customers are visiting already.

Doug Brewer
www.dbadvisorygroup.com

Thomas Whitney

January 13, 2009 02:13 PM

Google Ads are effective if you can manage to meet the fine balance between cost of pay per click vs sale. In my experience this line moves more towards a profit margin with the larger sale items vs the small ones. Plus, the market has to be targeted. Now, if only we could manage digital security (a necessity in every aspect of digital life) with a click and a bid.

W.Garey

January 23, 2009 02:02 PM


Buy american built cars and trucks.Problem solved. Bailout not needed.Everyone back to work.

Joe

February 3, 2009 02:27 PM

umm...no thanks. american built is crappy and no one wants to waste their money on something crappy.

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In Blogspotting Senior Writer Stephen Baker and Associate Editor Heather Green take a look at how cutting-edge technologies are changing business and society. Whether its blogs or wikis, data crunching or data targeting, technology’s advances are reshaping the world that we live in.

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